Major chromakey fail

[wwzeitler]

When I use the eyedropper (in the KeyLight plugin) to select the screen color, it renders the entire image including the subject semi transparent. No amount of clip black/white begins to address the problem. I've attached before and after images. I understand there are some green spill issues, but this seems far beyond that. Thanx!!

[Warren Heaton · Accepted solution]

Apply Lumitri Color (Effect > Color Corrction > Lumetri Color) and use the RGB Curves such that you're giving Keylight a better image to work with.  You might need to go back and forth a bit between Keylight and the RGB Curves.  Based on your ae-before.png file, I found that Blue needs the greatest adjustment, but Green and Red needed adjustment as well.

Bring the Screen Colour up to 108 with Screen Blance close to 44.  Clip Black will probably fall close to 36 while Clip White will probably fall close to 63.

I find that Hard Colour tends to look better than the default Soft Colour for Replace Method.

With this, you should be able to pull a pretty good key.  Of course, be sure to check the Screen Matte View and Intermediate Result View as you make adjustments.

As far as the reflection in the piano goes, you'll probably need to Track Mask that and fill that with an flopped version of your background.

Keylight applied after RGB Curves adjustment

Have you had a chance to read the Keylight User Guilde?

Here's macOS file path:

/Applications/Adobe After Effects 2022/Plug-ins/Effects/Keylight/docs/Keylight_1.2_AE.pdf

[wwzeitler]

Thank you so much! This is a lot to chew on. (And I'll read the Keylight User Guide.) I'll report back with my results.

Meanwhile, is there something I could have done in the way of lighting, etc. of the original footage to have better results?

[wwzeitler]

OK, playing with the Lumitri plug in does help. But I'm just cluelessly flailing with it. Is there a resource you can suggest where I can learn what I'm doing? THANX!

[Warren Heaton · Accepted solution]

Some key things to think about when shooting footage for chromakey is that you want the green to really look like green or the blue to really look like blue and you want it to be smooth, bright, and evenly lit.  If you're using a light meter to measure light, the screen should be a half stop to a full stop higher than the subject.  If you can put more distance between the subject and the screen, that can help as well.

Of course, "really look like green" is subjective.

Hollywood Camera Work makes sample footage available for download to practice pulling a key.  I'd say that the green we see in most of their footage really looks like green.  https://www.hollywoodcamerawork.com/green-screen-plates.html

Another tip is to have more than one high-end keyer to try with your footage.  I use Keylight first (more out of long standing habit than anything), but if a clip is giving me trouble I'll swittch to Red Giant Primate Keyer 6.  Premiere Pro includes Ultra for keying, but I find that Ultra to be good for pulling a quick key for a rough cut to be cleaned up via Keylight in AE or Red Giant Primate Keyer 6 (which works in AE and PR).

[Mylenium · Accepted solution]

Your green isn't proper screen green. that's pretty much all there is to it. Given that it's a cyan-ish tone, it neither falls into a blue screen nor green screen range and the algorithms in the keyers that are optimized for these specific scenarios struggle with it. You need to ensure next time that your lighting doesn't wash out the screen. Judging from your image, your lights have the wrong color temperature, anyway. Cheap daylight LED spots meant for photographic work, presumably, which will inevitably be troublesome. The rest is just down to understanding what the various settings do and indeed perhaps creatively using color corrections on a duplicate of the source footage to pull a matte.

Mylenium

[Rick Gerard]

With your permission, I'll post a tutorial on an efficient workflow for creating a problematic composite when the original footage was not correctly set up or shot using your uploaded screenshot. The project took about 15 minutes and required five layers. It would be even better if I had a full-sized still frame or the actual video. The tutorial should be ready later this evening.

Thank you. Here's a preview of the final comp:

I am showing all modified properties for all layers. Used your screenshot and an Adobe Stock image for the background.

[wwzeitler]

I am grateful to one and all. I'm the guy playing the piano -- which wasn't easy to learn how to do, and I don't expect film (and chromakey in particular) to be easy either. The Internet is awash with 'advice' like 'light your green screen well' which is a lot like saying 'when you play the piano, play the right notes'. Duh, really? Specifically, HOW do you do that? As usual, the devil's in the details. 

I expect this to cost money (although my budget is in the hundreds but not thousands of dollars) and time (and how long does it take to learn a new Beethoven piano sonata? More than an hour, I assure you!)

I used the "Green Screener" app for iOS to create this footage and apparently that's not sufficient. Starting at the beginning of the production chain, I think I need to learn how to use a light meter (like Cine Meter). And work my way through the production chain. Already what has been suggested above about what to do in Post has been more helpful than many hours of DRIVIA ('drivel' + 'trivia') on YouTube.

Your specific advice here is greatly appreciated and very helpful, and I'd also be grateful for pointers to real information/tutorials/classes that aren't Drivia. 

Many many thanks!

[Rick Gerard · Accepted solution]

I just uploaded the tutorial. This is one of many possible workflows that can be used to solve background color problems and reflections in keying projects. I hope this helps:

I also uploaded a couple of project files that use the OP's original screenshot as the source footage.

[wwzeitler]

WOW! THANK YOU! One and all, and especially the tutorial!